OĽaNO, Sme rodina, SaS and Za ľudí quickly agreed on a new government

The OĽaNO, Sme rodina, SaS and Za ľudí parties agreed on the division of cabinet posts on Friday, using an 8:3:3:2 ratio. This is one of the fastest-formed coalitions in Slovakia’s history. OĽaNO managed to keep all important cabinet posts (PM, finance, interior and defense); in the past, junior coalition partners always had at least one of these portfolios.

According to unconfirmed media reports, OĽaNO will have the post of Prime Minister (Igor Matovič) as well as the ministers of Finance (Eduard Heger), Health (Marek Krajčí), Interior (Gábor Grendel), Defense (Jaroslav Naď), Environment (Ján Mičovský), Agriculture (Marcel Klimek), and Culture (Natália Milanová). The Sme rodina party will select the Deputy PM for Legislation (Štefan Holý), as well as the ministers of Transport (Andrej Doležal) and Labor (Milan Krajniak). The SaS got the job of Deputy PM for Economy, who will also serve as the Economy Minister (Richard Sulík), as well as the Education (Branislav Gröhling) and Foreign Affairs (Ivan Korčok) ministers. The smallest coalition party, Za ľudí, will have the positions of Deputy PM for Regional Development, Investment and IT (Veronika Remišová) and Justice Minister (Mária Kolíková). Boris Kollár (Sme rodina) will be Speaker of Parliament and Vladimír Pčolinský (Sme rodina) will be the director of intelligence agency SIS. The talks were nearly derailed by SaS’ insistence on having the Finance Minister, but the party was given the economy portfolio and one extra cabinet post instead. Starting in 2021, Remišová’s office will be responsible for managing all EU funds.

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